extensions
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: Sakura wasn't sure what inspired her to live on a farm with Naruto and Sasuke, but clearly it wasn't out of a desire for peace. Or sleep. Or sanity.


**Title: **extensions

**Characters/Pairings:** Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura

**A/N:** Written for the Harvest Zine. I have little knowledge about Harvest Moon but a lot about gardening, so it balanced out anyways.

**Summary:** _Sakura wasn't sure what inspired her to live on a farm with Naruto and Sasuke, but clearly it wasn't out of a desire for peace. Or sleep. Or sanity._

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"YOU'RE THE IDIOT!" Naruto yelled angrily, with a sharp stomp of his foot. From where Sakura stood, not a single part of him was visible on the roof but his voice betrayed his location.

Not that she had to see him to know what transpired. Sakura sighed. Another fight. Good lord, every time she left Sasuke and Naruto alone together, she found them in one scuffle or another. Half the time she felt more like their babysitter than their friend. Shifting her grip on the log in her arms, she gauged the distance between the roof and the ground. Maybe if she was lucky, they'd both fall off and break a leg. It'd teach them a thing or two.

Most likely, they'd be even worse pent up inside all day. She didn't even want to imagine the fights they'd get into; last time they both got sick, a window broke. Nope, this was one issue she wanted to immediately nip in the bud. Walking backwards until she could spot the golden tufts of Naruto's hair, she shouted, "Stop fighting on the roof!"

She heard a sharp bang and then a yelp. Immediately, Naruto stood up, rubbing his hand. "Sakura-chan!"

Unfortunately, he got up too fast and started to sway. His balance lost, he flailed and wind-milled his arms until he stood firm once more. Wiping the sweat from his brow, his shoulders sank with relief as he gave her a tired wave. "Hey."

"…whose bright idea was it to leave you on the roof?" Sakura muttered, shooting him a deadpan look. She knew she should have been up there instead.

Not hearing her, he beamed brightly and gestured at her. "You got the logs!"

"Yeah, and you're not done." Sakura glared up at him and the black, spiky hair that refused to turn her way. After a winter in the drafty cabin, the three of them had agreed to some much-needed repairs and an extension. Finally, she'd have her own room. Finally, she could have the two boys on opposite ends of the house, so she could at least have some moments of peace.

What she hadn't anticipated was the hours her boys would be on the roof together, arguing with each other more than they were setting the last parts of the frame.

"He started it!" Naruto whined, his hands on his hips. His usual orange outfit was replaced with blinding yellow shorts and a neon green shirt. It was impressive, really, how every outfit he owned clashed with even the lowest level of fashion sense. The black bits of tar and dirt staining his clothes actually improved the look, somehow. "I was working before he—"

"If you call that working," Sasuke snorted, finally sitting up. The collar of his white cotton shirt ruffled in the wind.

"Please don't start." Sakura didn't have to see more than his shoulders to know that he didn't look like the sweat-stained monsters she and Naruto were. No, by some miracle, even his hair was still in place. Even though he had been under the hot sun all morning. Even though he had been hammering away for hours. She wasn't sure what demon he worshipped, but she wanted in. At the very least, if only to get Sai to stop calling her ugly.

Ignoring her, Sasuke twirled a hammer in his hand with ease. He sneered disdainfully, "I thought the goal was to make less holes, not more."

Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes. Every time she thought Sasuke was even the tiniest bit more mature than Naruto, he went out of his way to prove her wrong. "Why do you have to egg him on?"

"You barely did any work!" Naruto growled, crouching till he could glare Sasuke in the eye. He looked like a chicken perched on an eave, his arms carefully tucked to his side.

Maybe she should pull out a blanket or something soft to cushion their fall. There was no hay at this point, but maybe she could get a truckload of manure to come before they finished their fight.

"And everything you did has to be redone," Sasuke hissed. The hammer looked more like a blunt weapon now as he rapped it into his open hand.

"Like you've never made a mistake!" Naruto snapped back, nails suddenly in his hand. They stuck out between his fingers like Wolverine's claws.

Sasuke scoffed. "Not at your level."

Murder was on the horizon. Sakura shifted the log in her hands once more, watching as the pair bickered. And she had found this hot when she was younger._ Hot_. What an idiot she had been. The only word for this was _annoying_. Why did she agree to take over this farm with them again? Even working with Ino and her resistance to dirtying her hands would have been a better choice. Rolling her shoulders back, Sakura admonished, "We have a lot of work to do, fight later."

She might as well have talked to a wall. Neither of them heard her, both of them now standing on the roof. Naruto's skin flushed red with anger as he snarled, "You think you're so good—"

Honestly, she should have expected this. Almost all of their fights went like this—it was like they had blinders on when they fought. Unfortunately for them, her temper had grown shorter with each argument. Adjusting the weight in her hands, she tapped her foot impatiently. "Hey, guys—"

"Better than being an idiot like—"

"I'm not an idiot—!"

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP ALREADY?" Sakura snapped. If she could have, she would have hurled the log in her arms at them.

Immediately, the pair fell silent. Two heads turned to stare at her, eyes wide, and she flushed a dark red. It had been ages since she'd last yelled that loudly. Coughing to cover her embarrassment, she tilted her head at the log. "Where does this go?"

They both blinked at her, still surprised. Slowly, Sasuke pointed at the eastern wall. "Over there."

The silence continued as the pair still stared at her. Unnerved, she hefted the slowly slipping log a little higher and turned on her heel. "Gotcha."

With her back turned, Naruto regained his courage and apologized in a shaky voice. "Sorry, Sakura-chan!"

She couldn't help it—there was something ridiculously endearing about Naruto and she didn't have to turn around to see his sad puppy eyes. Relaxing her shoulders as she released her anger, she laughed. "Just get to work. I don't want to find puddles in my room when it rains."

"Already on it!" And just like that, he was back to his usual, cheery self.

Internally, Sakura started the countdown to the next fight. Maybe she could make it up to the roof before it happened, if only to bop them on the heads in person. Dropping her log, she counted the pile already there. Ten logs. Enough to finish the supports and columns, if she remembered correctly. Another dozen were needed for completion. Sakura could chop them in the afternoon, after she fixed the tractor and—

Immediately, she whirled around and glared up at the two. "Hey. Why am I doing all the heavy work?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto cocked his head confused.

Sakura redirected her glare to Sasuke, the obvious mastermind. "Why am I doing all the heavy work?"

"…because you're strong," Sasuke finally muttered, gently tapping on a nail. His focus remained down and away, as though he couldn't feel the hole she was boring into him. "Stronger than Naruto."

"Hey!" Naruto snorted, hands on his hips. "She's stronger than you too."

"Am I?" Sakura asked, still glaring at Sasuke. He still refused to look up as she ground out, "_Am I?"_

Sensing imminent danger, Sasuke admitted quietly, "You're stronger than both of us."

"Better." Sakura crossed her arms, still irritated. She had found him hot at one point and she was having difficulties remembering why. "But you're both helping with the other chores at least."

The sun beat warm on her back and she glanced back at the farm. Behind her, rows upon rows of wheat and corn gleamed green under the bright sunlight, the unripe crops still slowly growing. When they'd first taken over Kakashi's farm, they had expected it to be somewhat rundown. They had not expected it to have so many depilated building and overrun fields. It had taken them almost a year to get the farm in working condition, and that was just the areas that were already in use.

Spread around the farm was another entire acre of forest. Sakura grimaced at the thought. While it was useful at times like these, where they needed the old trees to rebuild, it'll take ages to pull out the stumps and break down the hard, packed soil.

Maybe she could get Sai to help out. The loafer barely did anything as it was.

"It looks a lot better now," Sasuke echoed her thoughts. She jerked her head up to catch him admiring the farm too. A breeze ruffled through his hair as he surveyed the land.

"Anything'd look better," Naruto chimed in, stretching his arms behind him. "How did Kakashi make a living here?"

"You think he just trashed it before we came?" Sakura asked, flexing her cramped hands. Maybe she should have taken a break between logs—at this rate her hands were going to freeze in a clawed shape. It hurt to straighten each finger.

Naruto laughed, loud and brash. "Had his dogs run wild just to make things difficult for us?"

"And call it a life lesson?" Sasuke arched a brow.

It was too much—Sakura could just picture her old, silver-haired mentor and his gaggle of dogs. All dressed up like ninjas from the joke gifts Naruto had sent him every year. Sitting in a wheelchair, covered in enough bandages to make a mummy jealous, Kakashi could have pointed at the fields and commanded, "_Dig!"_

She wasn't the only one—she only had to look at Sasuke and Naruto before all of them burst into laughter.

And then she only had to look at them one more time to stop. Falling silent, Sakura swallowed. The scenario sounded more and more plausible with each passing second. Kakashi had always been an unconventional teacher and this sort of thing could definitely have been a final gift from him.

Naruto shuddered. "That sounds like him."

"It does, doesn't it?" Sakura rubbed her knuckles, peering at the shadows as though their old teacher would be hiding in one of them. His will had felt more like a practical joke than actual last wishes and even now she half expected him to leap out with a camera and a teasing grin.

"I could see him doing it to the idiot," Sasuke countered, trying and failing to look unruffled. He bent over to grab his toolbox, done with the conversation. "Not us."

"What?" Naruto yelped indignantly.

With a chuckle, Sakura nodded her agreement. "True—Naruto's just dragging us down with him."

Hurt, Naruto turned to her. He clutched his heart dramatically. "I'm right here!"

"Just teasing!" Sakura grinned, winking at him. When he smiled back, she added, "Mostly."

"Hey!" Naruto fumed, stamping his foot on the roof. "I—"

Whatever he was going to say got cut off as his stomach rumbled loudly. His ears turned pink and Sakura shook her head fondly. "I'm hungry too—I'll grab lunch. If you could get some eggs and—"

"I'll check the henhouse," Sasuke offered, setting down his hammer. He wiped his hands on his pants and Sakura winced at the dirty handprints on the blue fabric. Yeah, the boys were on laundry duty this week.

"That's easy." Naruto smirked, hands on his hips as he hollered down, "I'll clean the barn, Sakura-chan!"

Well, that scratched off two of her chores for the day. She stared up at them, pleased. For once, they had actually listened to her. And for longer than it took to get her off their backs. She beamed up at them. "Thanks."

"And I'll check the orchard too," Sasuke added, glancing at Naruto.

Her smile dropped a notch. She knew that look, even before Naruto furtively scanned their farm for even more chores to do. Hands on her hips, she shot them an exasperated glare. "Really? Again? It's been like five minutes. Is everything a competition between you two?"

"That'd imply there's a competition," Sasuke answered with a smile that was equally teasing and serious.

At that, she had to laugh. As ridiculous as their arguments were, it made for lively conversation. The hours flew by when she listened to them, the long, tedious chores finishing as soon as they started. And if it ever made her feel even the littlest bit left out, the two always made sure to drag her in with them.

"I'll show you—" Naruto stomped forward and there was a loud cracking noise. Suddenly, he fell over.

Sakura stared at him, her jaw dropping. Horrified, she called out, "Are you okay?"

Sasuke was already scrambling toward him. The first aid kit was in the kitchen. Or maybe she needed to call for the doctor—that crack sounded horrible. Almost like—

"I'm okay!" Naruto yelled back, pushing up into a sitting position. Rubbing the back of his neck, he laughed nervously. "But…the roof isn't."

"The roof isn't," Sasuke repeated before realization dawned and he covered his face with a hand. "You. Idiot."

And she was sure he was right, that Naruto was definitely an idiot, but Sakura wasn't sure why yet. "What happened?"

Naruto laughed awkwardly, turning to her. "I'm…stuck."

"Stuck." Sakura stared at him, then at Sasuke, and put two and two together. "What did you do, Naruto?"

"…well, you don't have to worry about holes in the roof, Sakura-chan. My foot's blocking them!" Naruto joked nervously as he watched her slowly make her way to them. "Wait, no—Sakura-chan, you don't have to come to the roof _PLEASE DON'T KILL ME."_


End file.
